Whether he’s ensuring a healthy future for Florida’s fish and wildlife and their habitat, coordinating a successful Super Bowl or managing one of the many businesses he’s involved with, Rodney Barreto works hard and makes the most of his time.
So if juggling all those demands wasn’t enough, the chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission decided to attempt the ultimate turkey hunting challenge this spring and try for a grand slam.
Barreto didn’t get just one of each of the four wild turkey sub-species – Osceola, Eastern, Rio Grande and Merriam’s – that make up the grand slam, he got two of each for a single-season double slam.
Considering some hunters take years to get a career slam, Barreto’s achievement is something special.
“We have talked about doing this for three years,” said Jeff Budz, a turkey hunting fanatic and the manager at Pine Creek Sporting Club in Okeechobee. “The first year was talk. The second year, Rodney said he would ‘make’ the time and it never happened. This year, he decided to ‘take’ the time and you can see the results.”
Barreto, 52, who started hunting when he was 10 in the Everglades, had to take time away from his post as head of The Barreto Group, a Miami company whose interests include developing gas stations, political consulting and part ownership of a bank. He also is the chairman of the South Florida Super Bowl Host Committee. The grand slam effort happened over 14 days of hunting in four states and yielded nine birds.
“I had very good fortune,” said Barreto, who credited Budz’s knowledge of where they were hunting with eliminating a lot of guesswork. “Everything kind of fell into place. It’s amazing what we were able to do.”
Barreto started his slam with a 3-year-old Osceola gobbler hunting with Budz in a Hobe Sound citrus grove in March. Then he went to Georgia and shot an Eastern with Budz. After Budz returned to Okeechobee, Barreto bagged a second Georgia gobbler.
“Jeff was blown away,” Barreto said, noting that Budz considers the Eastern turkey to be the hardest to get of the four slam sub-species. “He said, ‘Let’s go get a second Osceola so we can attempt two slams in a single season.’ “
Barreto drove to Okeechobee on a Thursday night and got his second Osceola the following morning, enduring the worst mosquitoes he had ever experienced as six hen turkeys fed around the decoys he and Budz had put out.
“All of a sudden, here comes the gobbler,” Barreto said, and he was halfway to his double slam.
The next stop was Kansas. Barreto and Budz flew out on a Sunday. Hunting in a remote farming community, Barreto shot two Rios on Monday. Tuesday afternoon they arrived in South Dakota where they hunted the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in howling winds.
Budz, who had hunted the area before, took Barreto to a productive location where they spotted three gobblers and several hens together. The two men snuck up over a ridge and one of the gobblers came right to them. After Barreto bagged that bird, he and Budz moved to another spot where they called up two gobblers. They each shot one and Barreto’s double slam was complete. He later shot a third Merriam’s.
“It was a great season,” Barreto said. “We were persistent and we worked hard. Jeff’s such a great motivator. He’s so focused. I’ve learned so much turkey hunting with this guy, I feel like I’m so proficient now. He had me doing everything.”
Barreto’s experience was enhanced because he shared it with his brothers. Bruce, a retired Miami Beach firefighter who had never hunted turkeys before, got two Rios and two Merriam’s and hopes to complete his slam next year. Richard, the oldest brother, who retired as the Miami Beach chief of police, completed his first grand slam when he shot a Rio in Kansas.
Barreto also marveled at the rugged beauty of South Dakota’s Badlands National Park, the friendliness of the people they met, the weather – it snowed the day they left South Dakota for Florida – and the isolation of the two states.
“The best thing that happened to me out there, my phone didn’t work in Kansas and it didn’t work in South Dakota,” Barreto said with a laugh. “It was so peaceful.”
